When It All Becomes Worth It
by littlebluewhalen
Summary: When Uraraka is the only thing that stands between life and death for her and Bakugo, will she be able to find the strength within herself to pull through?


**A/N: This is a little one-shot based in an AU universe I created. In this universe, the League of Villains is out to capture Bakugou to force him to work for them using forcible mind control. Ochako gets involved and helps protect him, and thus the League sets out to ruin their image and have them kicked out of UA, which means that they are vulnerable. In this AU, if Toga transforms into someone, she can hear their thoughts.**

**Anyway, that's just a little bit of background. On with it!**

**/**

Uraraka Ochako was intelligent well beyond her age. She acted quickly and thought on her feet, entirely clever and pragmatic. Which is how she knew that her plan would work.

Ochako heard the rumbling in the distance and sensed the static in the air and she told her parents to evacuate immediately. She had the hero training and they didn't, and with an incredible amount of reluctance that she didn't have time for, they listened to her. Ochako stood her ground in the abandoned street and waited. It was too quiet; her memories of her hometown were filled with laughter and the sounds of birds and crickets, but now it was dead silence. She guessed that the animals had sensed the danger as well. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and sent an SOS to her homeroom class. She turned on the hidden camera that was hidden in her hair as a barrette.

Aizawa and she had it worked out. If anything happened to either her or Bakugou while they weren't attending school, their names would be cleared. This would show that the League was after them; that they hadn't been leaking information about the school's weaknesses. She nor Aizawa had envisioned that the League would so openly attack them like this, however. In the wake of her seemingly insurmountable fear, Uraraka stood and waited, anxiety pricking at her soul. She ignored it and steeled herself. She couldn't let Bakugou down. She couldn't let her parents down. She couldn't let her friends, her professors, or herself down. But most importantly, she was a hero. Heroes embraced their fear and fought their hardest in spite of it.

A crackling white noise flowed into her ear and she heard Aizawa's voice coming through the faux-stud earring in her cartilage.

"Are you alright, Uravity?" He asked calmly.

"Yes, I'm fine. Is Principal Nezu watching?" She asked bitterly, to which Aizawa affirmed with a hum, "Good. I hope All Might is there too. Tell the class I love them all." Uraraka said. Aizawa did as she asked, then proceeded to calm her nerves.

"Principal is pissed that we went through with an unauthorized plan, by the way. You might get expelled, and I, suspended." He started. His voice was bored, but concern was laced through it. Uraraka shrugged, even though they couldn't see it.

"It's his fault that he wouldn't let Bakugou or I go through with it. He's usually so calm and collected and objective, but he's panicking and suspending his own innocent students. The League covered their tracks really well this time… framing us almost perfectly…" She replied. Aizawa said nothing, so she remained silent, on alert. The steps were coming closer- a giant beast was on its way, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She cracked her knuckles and braced herself for the battle that was to come.

Finally, she saw it over the hills, and she knew that they did, too. She knew that Deku and Iida must be flipping out right now. She growled lightly as it stalked up the street. She crouched slightly, ready to attack.

The beast was huge and it towered over her. It was large and stood on three scaly legs, with two protruding from the sides as arms; it looked like a giant rock, and Uraraka knew that it was dense just by looking at it. It had three sets of eyes and a mouth with sharp, pointed teeth; no doubt an experiment made by the League. Toga was beside it, grinning maniacally at Uraraka.

"Oh, look, my best friend! Today is just my absolute luckiest day!" The girl squealed. Uraraka growled again in return. "Oh, I bet you want your boyfriend, huh? Don't worry, he's not my type!" Toga asked sweetly. Before Uraraka could process her sentence, Toga looked to the monster and nodded. The monster threw a person straight at Uraraka, and she recognized it to be Bakugou. Without flinching or showing a hint of surprise or desperation, Uraraka leapt forward deftly and touched him with her hand, pulling him behind her. He was beaten badly and unconscious, blooded and bruised and she felt a rage consume her.

"Your boy toy didn't feel like coming today?" Uraraka offered. Toga narrowed her eyes, but kept her grin, unwavering.

"Shigaraki is busy dealing with… other matters. Besides, he trusts me to take care of you." She said with something akin to pride. Uraraka snorted.

"I stopped you in my first year at U.A.. I can definitely stop you now." She responded easily. Uraraka was hoping she'd take the bait. Toga's smile slipped off her face and she bared her teeth.

"Oh, did you really, Uraraka Ochako? We _wanted_ that to happen. I have your blood, don't forget! I can be Ochako any time I _please_! I can get in your head. I know your feelings, I know who you love and who you don't. How do you think we've been finding you guys all over the goddamned place? It was thanks to you, Uraraka. I can get in your head and know _exactly_ where you are. How does that make you feel? The fact that so many of your classmates and friends have been harmed just because you've been cut by me? Because for me, it feels _amazing_, almost like love." Toga said quickly, her lovesick look slipping back onto her face quickly in the midst of her speech, grinning.

"Got it." Aizawa said in her ear, to which she produced a smile. Just like that, their name was clear; no one was leaking information- at least, not intentionally. And it certainly wasn't her or Bakugo. Now, the pros should be moving in and she needed to get out of here with Bakugo right now-

"Oh, and to make sure your little pro-hero friends don't show up…" Toga added. Uraraka's focus whipped to the girl front and center, and before she knew what was happening, Toga was laughing and the monster was producing an ear-splitting noise. The girl immediately clapped her hands over her ears and ground her teeth, staring at the beast. A blue hue encircled them.

A forcefield, she realized.

"Not even All Might could break this baby, you know- if he was even still around." Toga said smoothly, clapping and giggling. She heard Aizawa curse in her ear.

Okay. It was up to her now. She could do this. She glanced back at Bakugo and realized that, no,

_She had to do this._

"Fine, Toga. You wanna fight me? Then fight me!" Ochako yelled. Toga beamed at her.

"Hm, I'm afraid I'll be sitting this one out – but I'm sure you'll find our wee little beastie to be more than capable of smashing you to a pretty little pulp. Oh, and what a pretty mess you'll be!" She responded. With that, she bounded over to the edge of the forcefield and the monster roared, charging towards Ochako.

The gravity manipulator leapt out of the way as it rampaged towards her and it immediately turned on a dime and came straight towards her. She realized that they probably picked this particular monster just for her; it seemed to be so dense that she would have to use a lot of energy to get it to float.

However, it's weight actually worked in her favor; she hadn't mastered the ability yet, but it was something that the League didn't know about, so she was going to have to rely on the element of surprise. As much as she hated relying on a chance, she had to find the strength within her to make it work.

Ochako ran to Bakugo and tapped him, making him weightless, then threw him a good ways away from the fight. She grit her teeth and released her quirk before turning back around, trying to quickly formulate a plan.

The monster barreled towards her, and she side stepped it to touch it, only to realize that the monster was burning hot and that she couldn't actually touch it without getting burned. She hissed and pulled her hand back before jumping out of the way as his fist came down into the ground, creating a crater. Ochako made herself weightless in the air and hit the forcefield with her back. She was desperately trying to come up with a plan, any plan really. She couldn't touch him, which meant that her powers were weakened, and she couldn't lift him, either. But the crater got her thinking…

The monster roared again, ruining her ears, and swung a great fist at the spot where she was at the forcefield. She launched herself towards the ground and rolled away a bit from the monster. Looking back, she saw the forcefield crackled but wasn't even the slightest bit damaged. She could hear Toga cackling from the ground. The sound infuriated her, and that's when it came to Ochako.

She dodged the monster's hands again as they both came to clamp down on her on the ground, like it was trying to squish a bug. She dodged and ducked under the monster's three legs, ignoring how hot she was and how the closeness to the intense heat hurt her. She realized that the heat was worse under the creature's legs than his arm had been, and a plan was quickly formulating in her mind, pieces of thought and ideas pulling themselves together. Nausea was building up in her stomach from the constant fluctuation of her own gravity, but she ignored it and hyperfocused on the plan that was unfurling in her mind.

Ochako jumped up and applied her anti-gravity at the height of her jump before releasing it slightly, but not completely, to seemingly float down onto the monsters back. Her assumption was right; his back was still hot, and would still burn her if her hands were there for too long, but it was cooler than his center.

His arm swung at her quickly and she just barely dodged, but pretended to get hit and rolled onto the ground, groaning. Her barette was on the ground now, but she noticed that the part where the camera was still facing her. According to plan, she writhed around in fake pain, and the monster, on Toga's command, slammed down onto Ochako.

Ochako compounded her own gravity as the hand slammed over top of her and caused a crater in the earth below her. It looked like she was effectively crushed, but she was safe in her little cavity. She gasped for breath as she released her own gravity; she had almost crushed herself, and so did the monster, but it was a calculated risk she had to take. Dirt crumpled and caved on top of her a little bit, obscuring her face and chest, as the monster moved its mighty hand off of the crater, but not too far away. She breathed shallowly, trying not to give herself away until she heard Toga's voice getting closer. The girl was squealing with joy and was now right next to the monster, singing praises. She waited until the voice grew slightly more distant, and then Ochako knew that it was now or never.

Slowly, Ochako sat up and reached the tips of her fingers towards the monster's legs, and with great power that she didn't know she had, she made herself feather-light and crawled on her fingers and toes under the monster, coming up around its backside. Toga was too busy singing her success to notice, and luckily the monster seemed to lack senses when it wasn't engaged in combat. Ochako filed that little detail in the back of her mind as she floated up behind the monster.

Ochako was suddenly on the monsters back, straddling its back with her legs on either side, and applied all of her concentration on the monster and Toga, who was too shocked for words. She channeled a lot of her concentration into her fingertips, but focused on Toga as well; she reached out with her mind, pushing her quirk to the fullest, feeling bile rise up in her throat, fighting exhaustion as she forced the both of them to the ground. She pushed the two into the ground, creating an impossibly larger crater, forcing them deep. She heard Toga struggle to breathe as her own gravity crushed her. She wouldn't be a problem when Uraraka broke, but the monster definitely would. She couldn't keep this up for much longer. The monster roared and tried to move furiously, trying to thrash, to buck her off. But Uraraka held tight, through the tears and pain and heat, and she felt his exterior cracking. She couldn't keep this up for much longer; a few more seconds maximum. The heat licked at her legs and hands and she felt the blisters forming. Her eyes found Bakugou again, beaten and bloodied and useless, but she realized that she needed him. She shouldn't, she knew that; as a pro hero, you should be only able to rely on yourself. People depended on you, and only you. Bakugo wouldn't be with her forever.

She tabled the self-lecture for later and yelled out to him.

"Bakugou!" She screamed his name in desperation, "I can't do this without you!" She said, her voice screaming over the vicious sounds of the monster. She screamed in pain as the monster slowly burned her hands and legs, but she couldn't give up. Not when everything was riding on her. That's what plus ultra meant, after all.

"Get up, you lazy motherfucker!" She screamed again, her voice cracking. She was going to black out from pain and exertion, she knew it. She felt the burns crawl up her skin. She heard a crack, and an awful yell; the monster was breaking, but not fast enough. She then heard a grunt and her eyes widened. He opened his eyes and suddenly snapped up, looking at the scene before him. "I need you to incapacitate them! _Now!_" She yelled. He didn't know what was going on, not one bit, but he listened to her without hesitation. He was wobbly on his feet, but he got up, and finding a new strength somewhere within him, he launched himself at the beast. In the same moment, Uraraka released her hold on Toga and the beast; if she had pushed her any further, she would have died, and Urarka wasn't a murderer. He looked at Ochako and nodded as his fist connected with the beast's face, right where it's eyes were, and she released her quirk, sliding off of the beast and onto the ground, crawling away as fast as she could on burned limbs, and letting him finish it. She trusted him completely, entirely. Her adrenaline cancelled out the pain she felt at that moment, and her emotions evaded her mind and body: relief at seeing Bakugou alive and fighting, fear and sadness and utter happiness.

Bakugo's fist connected with the beast's face, where its eyes were, and he yelled in fury. His explosions were blue and white and utterly blinding, and the monster screeched in pain. Ochako closed her eyes and looked away.

He kept punching and started to break the rocky exterior, aided by the cracks that Uraraka had already created. His hands were bleeding but he didn't stop. She watched him, her eyes never leaving him, and she saw him deliver one final punch. It sent a shockwave through the air and it knocked through the monster, bursting it to pieces and effectively knocking Toga out, who was breathing deeply, trying to regain regularity. The forcefield dissipated with the defeat of the monster. Tears sprung in Ochako's eyes once more.

Bakugo wobbled then crashed onto the ground, crawling over to her. He collapsed beside her. His breathing was ragged and his wounds were bleeding again. Bruises covered the expanse of his skin, and his eyes fluttered shut. She heaved sobs of relief and pain. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that her classmates were still watching, but she couldn't bring herself to care. The burns were catching up with her. They had seared through her lightweight clothes and through her first layers of skin. She was bleeding on the inside of her thighs and calves and hands. Her finger pads were burned off, yellow pus oozed from her burns, and the ugly red marks were glaring and would require weeks of treatment.

But she was happy because they were safe and they were innocent.

"Ochako…" his voice called out to her weakly. She opened her eyes and saw him blurrily through her tears, turning her head to look over at him. Blood leaked out of his mouth as he spoke.

"Hush. They're coming. We're innocent." She spoke through the pain. The reality of what happened sunk in and fresh tears sprang into her eyes as her exhaustion coupled with her wounds and bile crept up her throat. She attempted to force it down, but she couldn't anymore; she propped herself up on her forearms and she heaved, crying and trying to just _breathe_. She coughed, and felt Katsuki's rough hands tiredly patting her back. Her ribs her, her stomach hurt, her everything hurt. Once she had sufficiently coughed up her entire stomach, she rolled away from her vomit, flopping onto her back near him. She looked over, into his eyes and focused on breathing, focused on him, focused on anything but the pain. He took her hand, laying on the ground, in his, but reeled back as she yelped.

"Fuck, Ochako…" He whispered, staring at her hands, not having noticed the way they were charred black and red and yellow the first time. She made a strangled noise that was supposed to be reassuring, but felt like anything but that.

"We're alive." She whispered, like it was the only thing that mattered. Because it was.

The pain soon consumed her, and blackness dotted her vision before overtaking her entirely.

/

When Ochako woke, she was in a hospital bed, situated right next To Bakugo.

It all came back to her and she groaned, trying to move, then panicking when she couldn't. She looked down and noticed that her legs were tightly wound in casts, thick casts that were producing a glow. She looked to the sides and her hands were in the same predicament. She bit her lip as she realized that it must be a healing quirk manifested in these items which were helping her heal; perhaps a fusion of Recovery Girl and Yaomomo?

A grunt directed her attention to her right, and she saw Katsuki in much the same situation. His arms and legs were wrapped in gauze and his face was filled with bandages. There was also a wrap around his ribs. He awoke slowly, taking in his surroundings before realizing what happened. He looked to his left and his eyes caught hers. She smiled bitterly.

"Hey." She said quietly. He scanned her, and his face turned to one of guilt and fury upon seeing her casts. "Hey, don't look like that." She said soothingly. She desperately wished that she could reach out and take his hand right now.

"Are you okay?" He asked dumbly, but she knew what he meant. She thought, then nodded.

"I'm not in pain right now, so I'm guessing I'm on pain medicine," She replied, nodding her head slightly to the IV bag on her left, "and we kicked ass, took down a notorious villain from the League of Villains and her pet, and cleared our names. Plus, you're safe and alive. So I'm doing great." She replied honestly. Katsuki felt a warmth invade his entire body, spreading through him like an invasive species, and he grunted as way of agreement. Silence lapsed before he spoke up.

"You wouldn't have gotten hurt if you didn't get tangled up in my shit." He said at last, voicing what's been on his mind since the start. She frowned.

"Stop thinking like that. I'm going to be a hero. I could get hurt everyday. It's a risk we take, Katsuki. I wouldn't take any of it back. I'm just glad that you're-we're- okay. For right now, at least." She reprimanded slightly.

"I love you." He blurted it out before he could stop himself. His face was red and he quickly turned his head away from her. She was blushing fiercely and she felt her heart explode with the weight of his confession. She was gaping and she couldn't think of anything to say.

"You don't have to reciprocate, I'm just-" he started to say, but was cut off.

"I love you too." She replied sweetly. He could hear the grin in her voice and looked back over to her.

"We-" He was stopped short, again, by the opening of a door.

"Oh, thank god." It was All Might, swiftly followed by Aizawa and Principal Nezu. He came up to the kids, beside their beds, and smiled at them, tears in his eyes.

"You kids did amazingly. I'm sorry it got that far, though." Aizawa commended, looking at them with perfectly alert eyes, pain lurking behind them. "I'm just thanking the universe that you won't suffer permanent injuries." He said calmly. They nodded, feeling slightly awkward. There was a lapse in silence before the Principal spoke up.

"I truly am sorry. Both of you. I inadvertently put you in this situation because of my own paranoias. I'm not suit to be the president of a school that creates heroes, when I am no hero myself." The president apologized, his voice sorrowful. Neither Uraraka or Bakugou disagreed with him, because he was right; he put them in danger, even though the teachers all spoke on their accounts. Another lapse of silence ensued before All Might spoke up.

"You two showed a bravery in the face of incredible danger that was far beyond a pro hero's level. Uraraka, your quick thinking and strategizing is what saved the both of you. Bakugou, you reached a new limit with your powers out of love and trust. I hope this is both a lesson to both of you as you graduate from U.A. and become true heroes. In my- and many others' eyes- you're both already heroes." He commended honestly. Tears sprang immediately in Uraraka's eyes, and Bakugou was fighting off some of his own.

"You both are to rest here until you're better. Bakugou, you should be good to leave within two days; Uraraka, you will need to stay here longer. You will also need to endure physical therapy. Those burns were bad; third degree at least, and most likely beyond that. Your skin was charred beyond repair and pain is imminent. The creature had a molten core surrounded by lava rock, so for you to endure being on it as long as you did is a feat in itself. But you are both excused from your studies from U.A. until you're better." Aizawa said, looking to Uraraka. The news sank within her that she'd be out of commission – and even unable to do things at U.A. – for weeks on end, and she deflated like a balloon.

"I appreciate that, sir… but, just give us a week. I think I speak for both of us when I say that I don't want this holding me back. With nothing to do, I feel useless, and I don't want to continually think about that fight. Could I just do the written classwork and homework here?" She asked politely. Aizawa raised his eyebrows, but didn't really look that surprised. These were two of his toughest students, after all.

"If you're sure, then yes." He looked for Bakugou for confirmation, to which he received a nod.

"Alright, then. You both should rest. I expect your friends will want to see you both after you wake up, and I'm afraid we can't keep them away for much longer." Nezu said. The students nodded, and All Might ushered him out of the room, leaving the students alone with Eraserhead. Once the door was shut, the man sighed deeply.

"You scared the shit out of me, Ochako." He said lightly, his concern and affection for his student lacing themselves into his words. She smiled slightly.

"Sorry 'bout that, professor. I didn't expect that fight either." She replied. He shook his head.

"I was already sending heroes on the way to you as soon as Toga showed up. But you took matters into your own hands, regardless, because you knew the situation would be worse otherwise. You fully knew the consequences of your actions, you knew the alternatives, and you still fought with everything in you. I'm so proud of you. And you, Bakugou- despite being knocked unconscious, you got up and you carried on, and you two trusted each other. Your actions today were incredibly selfless and heroic. I have no doubt in my mind that you two will do amazing things for this world." He concluded, smiling down at them. His face showed his clear pride in them. Ochako blushed profusely.

"Wait, how'd you know?" Bakugou asked gruffly, trying to hide his emotion.

"Originally, the plan was to put a camera on Uraraka and get Toga to confess to how they'd been tracking her. That was it. Then Uraraka would leave and the pros would come. It was a ploy to clear your names in front of Nezu. So we put a camera and microphone on Uraraka and everything was broadcasted to the class. All Might all but forced Nezu in that room and made him watch." Aizawa explained thoroughly. Bakugou's eyes were wide with this information.

"All the little shits from class saw?" Bakugou groaned, rolling his eyes at how he knew everyone was going to be fawning over him and Uraraka for the next few weeks. He heard a giggle beside him and looked over to him. "The fuck you laughin' at?" He asked.

She grinned at him in spite of herself. "I just can't believe that after everything, you choose our classmates to be mad at." She laughed again before grimacing. He noticed and a look of worry crossed his face.

"Go back to sleep, Uraraka. The pain meds will wear off, dumbass." He said softly. She looked at him with fierce compassion in her eyes and it made him melt.

"You both should actually go back to sleep," Aizawa mused, "I'll be back later." He said. And with that, he made his leave. After the door shut, silence rolled between the two and settled on them life a blanket.

"I really want to hold your hand right now." She murmured into the air, looking up at the ceiling. I pang went through Bakugou as he heard this, as he realized that we wouldn't really be able to touch her for weeks.

"Me too." he offered sadly.

/

"Oh, _god!_" Mina cried upon seeing them. Bakugou and Uraraka had been awake for about two minutes before they heard the clamoring of their classmates outside and Ashido burst through the door. Her shriek caused Bakugou to groan loudly.

"Mina, you need to calm down, ribbet. They're weak right now." Tsuyu said calmly, padding up to the sobbing girl and putting her arm around her shoulders.

"Who are you calling weak-" Bakugou snarled, before Kirishima interrupted him.

"Knock it off, Bakugou." He said firmly, before walking up to him and smiling. Bakugou let a small smile slip onto his face at the sight of his best friend. Soon, everyone filed in the room and it was filled with voices talking over each other. Only Yaoyoruzi and Todoroki remained silent, knowing the talking was not helping, and gave their silent support. Ochako was eternally grateful for that.

"Everyone, be quiet!" Iida called out harshly, finally walking into the room with Midoriya in tow. Midoriya had fresh tear tracks staining his cheeks as he looked at his friends. "Your loud voices cannot be helping. And don't ask questions, either. Let them speak if they wish." Iida reprimanded, sending a deadly glare to the rest of their friends. They went silent immediately. Ochako and Bakugou shared a look, and Ochako spoke up while throwing a grateful nod his way.

"Momo, did you make these casts?" She asked. It was random, she knew, but she was curious. Momo looked taken aback but nodded.

"Yes, I created them. Recovery girl imbued the material with her recovery magic." She explained.

"I thought so! Thanks so much. They'll definitely speed the process up. Thanks to you, I'll be okay in a few weeks instead of a few months!" Ochako beamed at her, utterly thrilled. Momo blushed and stammered a thanks. Bakugo snorted.

"A few weeks?" Izuku suddenly spoke up. He looked crushed.

"This wasn't your fault, Deku." Bakugou suddenly said severely before Ochako could even speak, "you didn't do this, and this isn't about you. So stop only thinking about yourself and your self-pity and stop goddamn blaming yourself or what the fuck ever you're doing." He said harshly. But Deku merely started crying again. Bakugou huffed.

"I was on their hit list just for fucking being me. Uraraka got dragged into it through my bullshit. So stop thinking it's about you and stop fuckin crying already." He said finally. Deku nodded and vigorously wiped his tears away, willing himself to stop crying.

"Well, now you're both even more on their hit list, now that you've taken out one of their members and one of their little experiments." Kaminari spoke up before being slapped in the back of the head by Jirou. That realization settled in Ochako's stomach like a rock and she suddenly felt violently nauseous.

"Well, we'll handle it together." Bakugo replied coolly, looking at her. She locked eyes with him, and drawing on his strength, righted herself and forced down her nausea. She nodded.

"We'll all handle it together." Uraraka clarified, looking at her classmates. They all nodded, and an air of determination hung between them.

Because now they all had something tangible to work towards, a reason to become stronger.

/

Ochako was learning how to walk again. It was slow going; her legs held pain and her new skin was tight and refused to be stretched, but she pushed through it.

After physical therapy, her new skin would be stretched and would become red and itchy, and they would leak a healing clear puss, like a bad sunburn did. But she would simply get patched up by the nurse and try again tomorrow. The initial recovery that Recovery Girl administered to Uraraka had sped up her healing, but it was too dangerous to administer her quirk-based treatment after every session. Each day she made some more progress, and slowly but surely, her skin was truly healing and she could walk without the gross after effects. It still felt slightly unnatural, after weeks of not being able to walk. But she was learning to be okay again.

Her hands had healed faster, though she had been sure not to move them at all, lest her wounds reopen and they suffered the same fate as her poor legs. The loss of the use of her hands had made her become entirely dependent on someone else for a lot of things, which Ochako thoroughly hated. But she worked through it, always keeping her head up.

Her finger pads never grew back.

Her hands were normal now, and that worried her greatly. Every time she looked at her hands, bile rose in her throat. She hadn't dared try to use her quirk out of fear of what would happen. She could use her quirk without the use of her hands, but it was incredibly weak in comparison.

"Hey." A voice interrupted her thoughts as she stared at her hands, light pink as the fresh skin got used to the stretching and compaction and she closed and opened her fist. This was a slow workout for her hand.

She looked up and smiled slightly at Bakugou as he entered her room. He frowned at her expression.

"What's wrong?" He asked. She sighed and looked back at her hands. She held one up and he came closer for inspection. He looked over them then frowned. "What am I looking at? Your hand is healing." He replied, confusion written all over his face. She sighed in irritation.

"My finger pads haven't grown back." She said pointedly, looking up at him. He raised an eyebrow.

"And…?" He asked, lost. She groaned.

"_And_, that means that I won't be able to use my quirk as strongly. At least, I don't think so. I can kind of control it with my mind, but it'll take me years to get where I was with my hands!" She yelled in frustration. She felt like all of her progress had been stripped from her. She didn't regret it of course, but it still set her back years. And with the way the league was growing, she didn't have that time. Katsuki hummed.

"Even so, you'll still be stronger than anyone I know. I know it sucks, but you'll get through it. You take anything head-on. And I'll be here." He said, trying to comfort her in any way he could. She sighed and stared down at the sheets on the bed.

"I feel like I lost all of my progress that I worked so hard for. I can barely even walk correctly, Katsuki. I feel so weak and helpless and I hate this." She said, her voice hardened and just angry. She heard him shuffle and before she knew it, he as holding her chin up with a hand. She stared into his eyes, boring into him.

He leaned in and kissed her tenderly, a hand coming up to gingerly caress her face, the other combing through her hair gently, comfortingly. She sighed through her nose and slowly kissed him back. He broke off after a few seconds and looked at her.

"We'll get through it. It's what heroes do. It sucks, but we have to move on." He said carefully, searching her eyes. She sighed and closed her eyes.

"I know you're right. It just sucks." She replied, quietly. He patted her head and agreed with her.

/

Ochako was finally released from the hospital after nine weeks, and she had never been happier. She was excited to do her schoolwork in a place – anywhere, really – that wasn't her gloomy hospital room. Someone from her class had brought her homework each day after classes. Usually it rotated between Tsuyu, Iida, Izuku and Bakugou, depending on who had their private training when. Bakugou would sit with her and they would silently do their homework together each evening, even after his training and he was dead tired. Izuku would talk about what had happened recently in the hero world, Iida would fill her in on everything she missed in class, and Tsuyu would try to gossip with her as best he could. On the weekends, all of her classmates would visit and they'd fill her in on everything she'd missed and they would talk about everything and anything.

Ochako really did love and appreciate those moments between she and her friends, but she was so glad to not have to do that anymore. She was back with her friends, enjoying everything in the moment, able to do what she wants. Her legs no longer cried out in pain as she walked, and though she'd always have the ugly burn scars that wrapped their way up her legs, she was no longer handicapped by them.

Ochako hadn't used her quirk yet, out of fear or nervousness, she didn't know. But she was going to today.

She walked swiftly across the grounds of U.A., breathing in the scent of spring deeply. She was home and she felt a deep feeling of peace settle in her chest.

Ochkao walked towards her classroom. Only Bakugou had known that she'd be coming back to class today; he had brought her her uniform the night before. She gathered her courage and opened the door to the classroom before slowly walking in.

The classroom immediately burst into cheers and happy screams upon seeing her, and the girls rushed up to give her a hug. Despite whatever happened with her quirk, Ochako felt true joy for the first time in a really long time. She cried in happiness as her friends squeezed her, their own tears falling. She laughed. She knew that this happiness wouldn't last forever, as the league was still at large and evil was pervading the world, but she hung onto this feeling, this moment, just a little bit longer.

/


End file.
